Notables, including K-water President Park Jae-hyeon, Daejeon Mayor Huh Tae-jung, Sejong Mayor Lee Chun-hee, Chungcheongbuk-do Gov. Lee Si-jong participate at a ceremony to sign an MOU on the raising of the Chungcheong New Deal Venture Fund. (Photo: K-water)

K-water plans to create more than 90,000 jobs in next five years, a step designed to spearhead efforts to expand the employment market, which was sideswiped by COVID-19 pandemic.

K-water said on March 28 the corporation created a combined 13,196 jobs in the public and private sectors last year. The figure represented an 11.2 percent jump over 2019, and goes beyond the target of creating 12,591 jobs.

One of the job creation initiatives in the public sector was the creation of 323 jobs for youth, such as freshmen employees and high school graduates.

As for the private sector, K-water created 163 new jobs in areas such as dam data digitalization and smart dam safety management using advanced equipment.

K-water also makes every effort to create jobs to support the underprivileged bracket. The corporation employed 5,013 people to support the elderly and reinvigorate the economy in areas surrounding dams.

K-water created 2,217 jobs by supporting water industry SMEs and venture companies by launching startups, supporting for technology development, sharing resources and spinning out in-house venture companies.

The corporation plans to step up the implementation of a job creation roadmap to fulfill its social responsibilities as a public entity.

The roadmap calls for creating some 91,000 jobs related to the water industry in the public and private sectors between 2021 and 2025.

Specifically, as of the public sector, K-water plans to create 1,690 jobs for youth by achieving the job creation target and maximizing job creation potential.

As for the private sector, K-water plans to create 89,766 jobs through ramping up water quality and safety jobs and nurturing the water industry. To this end, K-water will channel 12.3 trillion won in diverse projects.

Besides, K-water plans to realize social values through the creation of quality jobs. The corporation will prioritize ramping up qualitative and quantitative management.

K-water offers information on job creation in a transparent fashion through creation of content such as “My Job Creation Status Board” of its homepage to create jobs people desire to land and reflect into job creation strategies people’s views gathered via the communication platform “Danbi TTottok.”

The corporation holds a “Job Creation Idea-thon,” a pilot project workshop designed to create jobs people desire to land, once annually.

Subsequently, K-water earned as much as 88.3 points in a job creation quality index, developed by Korea Management Association Consulting in cooperation with the corporation. The index evaluates five categories, including efforts to create jobs, and social values.

A K-water official said K-water is devoting itself to implementing K-water-style job creation programs to overcome an economic crisis and create quality jobs.

The corporation plans to live up to people’s expectations toward creation of social values as a public entity by ramping up the monitoring of job creation status on a half basis and collaboration, the official said.